Strength From Within
by bladeoftheapocalypse
Summary: A story using a character I made up for this purpose. Enjoy. R&R please, or I shall not respond in kind.


Scott Summers, leader of the X-Men, sighed. He adjusted his sunglasses and read over the new file for the twelfth time that day. "Adrian Damiani." he muttered. "Greeaaat." Scott leaned back. Apparently the Professor saw a need to keep Damiani here, so why should he complain? It wasn't like Adrian liked Jean. She tended to follow him though. Everyone did. Speaking of Adrian, there was his shadow by the door. "What do you want, Damiani?" Scott snapped, trying to at least scare him off.

The laugh from behind the door caught him off guard. "So sorry, God. Xavier wants to see you." The chilling laughter echoed on, accompanied by the sound of Adrian Damiani's steel boots thudding along the corridors. "Now go, child." The laugh again, but this time it was wilder, more like the laugh of a lunatic than of a rational X-Man.

Scott shuddered. "Yeah yeah." He shook his head, walking into the Professor's office. "You wanted to see me, Professor?"

Charles Xavier, one of the most intelligent people alive, and perhaps the strongest telepath alive, turned his wheelchair around. "Yes, I did, Scott. Did you go over the file on Adrian?"

Scott nodded, still half wondering why Damiani was so important. "Yeah. I did. What's so special about him? He's about as sane as those guys in Ravencroft."

Charles smiled somewhat. "Ravencroft wouldn't be able to contain him. If Area 51 couldn't..." It was relatively common knowledge now that Adrian had personally wiped out Roswell and Area 51, but getting him to talk about it usually meant a lot of lightning hurled at you. "I wonder if perhaps he had held himself back?"

Scott shrugged. "I doubt it. We all saw the news reports. Damiani is a cold blooded killer. No one could have survived that." The look in Xavier's eyes startled him. "What? If you honestly think Adrian should stay, Professor...then I agree. I don't want him jeopardizing my team, though."

Xavier shrugged. "I didn't intend to keep him here. Kitty was the one who brought it to my attention."

Scott shook his head, a bit amazed. "Kitty! But I thought she and Lance were together."

The Professor threw up his hands. "So did everyone else. She refuses to talk to him now."

Scott sat down. "Then it's probably the fact Lance told the world we're mutants."

Charles Xavier pulled up the file on Adrian Damiani again. "I don't think so." He studied the emotionless expression on the man's face, for the first time realizing that the look in Adrian's eyes wasn't insanity or hatred, but a pain that Charles found himself unable to understand. "There's something about him that none of us can ever understand, but Kitty thinks she can."

Scott sighed. "She falls for the evil ones, alright."

Xavier shrugged. "Whatever the case, Adrian's staying. I don't think he's legitimately insane, Scott. I think he's been messing with your head." He mentally sent out the call for Adrian to enter, and caught his questioning glance as he opened the door as silently as a ghost would have.

Scott scowled. "Whatever. I still don't like him."

"I don't like you either, Scott." Adrian muttered, causing Scott to pull at his shades. "Easy. I'm not going to tear you apart just yet. That's what the Danger Room is for."

Scott sighed. "You spent eight hours in there. Eight hours. Kitty Pryde was watching you the whole time."

Adrian shrugged. "And so were you. And Evan. And Kurt. Practically the whole damn mansion watched me tear myself apart in there fighting the ghosts of my past."

Scott glared at him. "You ripped the room apart, Adrian. Logan wasn't happy."

Adrian leaned against the wall, his shoulder length brown hair free for the moment from its ponytail. It hung into his eyes, casting a shadow over his face. "I don't care. All I want is for my past to stay buried." He closed his eyes, not noticing that Kitty Pryde had walked in.

Scott and the Professor both greeted her in unison, and Kitty looked up at Adrian. "Hey Professor..hey Scott." She kicked Adrian's leg, and she smirked when he opened his eyes. She knew he didn't feel it. "Adrian? Aren't ya gonna say hi to me or anything?"

Adrian closed his eyes. "Nope."

Kitty stuck her tongue out at him, knowing he was kidding. "What're you here for?"

Adrian shrugged. He opened his eyes. "My thoughts exactly. Why'd you call me in here?"

Scott scowled. "You blew up Roswell, you fucking psycho!"

Adrian winced. "That's not really something I want to talk about right now." That had been an accident...a test of his power by the government. "The government is treating their experiment a success...but they have no idea what they've unleashed on this world. When they slaughtered my family...I was six years old. I watched everything, paralyzed by fear and terror. I wanted to run away, but they had soldiers everywhere. They had every exit blocked, every door and window guarded." He paused, and Kitty sighed, her eyes filled with tears. Adrian continued, noticing that Scott had fallen silent, almost as though he finally realized how hurt Adrian was. "I watched my father take the bullets intended for my mother...and I watched my mother beheaded. My sister was thrown from our second story balcony...and she was only a year old. My own brother did this to me.

"When they were done with executing my family, they set my home on fire, annihilating the evidence. They threw me in a prison truck after drugging me. I spent the next ten years being electrocuted, poisoned, set on fire, and having my skin cut to pieces...not to mention the gladiator battles. The pain...my God...the pain." His sentence was finished in a whisper, and he reflexively curled up. He didn't say any more, but Kitty threw her arms around him and held him as tightly as she could. Adrian could only stare in surprise. She was crying when he couldn't.

Scott stared at him. "Adrian...if I knew what I know now...I wouldn't have treated you like dirt."

Adrian sighed. "I'm used to it, Scott. Completely used to it."

The Professor leaned forward. "You still have more hidden. You have to free yourself of the torment before you can be rid of it." He sent his mind probing outward, and entered Adrian's as easily as anyone else's.. What he saw contained as Adrian's repressed memories shocked him. He endured watching Adrian's electrocutions and pain. He could hear Adrian's every scream as though it was his own. He noticed that Adrian looked paler now, as though his presense in his mind was causing him pain. 

The wild brown eyes rolled up in his head, and Adrian abruptly fell to his side, the memories too much to bear. "Make it end..." he pleaded silently, in his mind. Outwardly, he was trembling, and Kitty was clinging tighter to him.

Within moments, it had ended. The professor exited Adrian's mind, sweating. No one had any right to do that to him. Government or not...they had created a killer. "Adrian..are you alright?"

Adrian Damiani heard the voice of the Professor, but he found himself unable to do anything except tremble. His nightmares didn't need to be brought out like this. He could still feel where they had electrocuted him, and it hurt. "God help me." he whispered. Faith was all he had. It helped that most of the X-Men had some form of religion to fall back on, and Adrian knew who to talk to when his life seemed to be hell. Kurt had left a rosary in his room, as well as a tattered Bible that Adrian assumed Kurt had had all his life.

"Adrian...oh God. What did they do to you?" Kitty whispered, feeling him still trembling.

"I...can't talk about it...it hurts." came the whispered reply, which made Kitty cry even harder.

Scott watched them in amazement. "I don't believe it...she really does love him." he muttered. He noticed that Adrian had risen, though Kitty hadn't even so much as tried removing her arms from him. Scott realized that Adrian was holding her as well.

Professor Xavier sighed. "Adrian...I would like to announce that you are the newest X-Man. I mean it. You're part of the team now, and you deserve it." And may God help our enemies, thought the Professor. He kept secret the sight of Roswell's destruction, the ease with which it had been done. The fact that Adrian Damiani had so much pain inside him would only make him stronger. And that meant that Adrian Damiani was going to be targeted by Magneto...or worse.

Kitty felt Adrian's arms around her, and she moved in even closer. "Adrian...since you've been here...I've liked you. You knew that, though...right?"

Adrian nodded. "Yeah...but what's that got to do with anything?"

Kitty stood on her toes, smiling up at him. "Everything, my love." She kissed him and smiled. "That explain things a bit better?"

Adrian could only stare at her. "How can you love me after what I've done?"

Kitty smiled a bit more. "I just do, Adrian. For reasons I won't tell you yet. You're amazing, for one thing. Not many guys would take bullets for me, even if it's just a training sim. Lance didn't do that when he trained with us. It was all about him. But with you...you don't care about what happens to you as long as your friends live."

Adrian blinked. "How come I'm the last one to know this?" He had always thought that he did that out of instinct, indoctrination. But he realized that the girl in his arms was truly more precious to him than his own life. "Kitty...I..." He paused, unable to say it.

Kitty smiled and hugged him. "I know, Adrian...I know. I love you too." She laced her fingers with his and smiled in satisfaction.

Scott stood, walking over to Adrian. The 'friendly' smile took its time in forming. "Congratulations, Adrian Damiani...or should I say...Ghost?"

Adrian shook his head. "No. Nightblade." Adrian noticed the Professor's eyes had widened. "Yes. Adrian Damiani is the one the government calls the Nightblade. The weapon to control the world with. But I'm not their puppet." Adrian sighed.

The Professor leaned back, or rather fell back from the weight of that statement. "Congratulations, Adrian." The Nightblade was truly a force to be reckoned with. "God help us all," whispered the Professor as his students left his office and the tears from the weight of Adrian's memories finally fell.


End file.
